d to become so. Things can
wait for a day, or the others can go on without me. I'm going to be a
private citizen and stay at home and mend. Can't you sit and sew too,
Mother?"

"Perhaps I can for half an hour," said Dr. Helen, "and you certainly
need to give your clothes some attention. When you go up stairs to get
your things, bring down that brown silk waist, and I'll make the collar
over for you."

In a few minutes the two were cozily settled in the little alcove off
the big book-lined living-room, a pleasant breeze bringing morning
freshness in by way of an open window.

"Mother," said Catherine suddenly, "you and Father have brought me up
very differently from most girls."

"How?"

"Why, about taking care of myself. Some of the really nice girls seem to
think it's perfectly all right to be sick, even when it could have been
avoided. And some of them think it's rather fine to be ailing."

"Do you mean they want to be petted? That's natural enough."

"Not just that. I don't mind that. But Dy-the Allen--"

"Stop a minute, Catherine. Once for all, what is her ridiculous name? I
have wanted to know for nearly a year and never think to ask."

Catherine laughed. "She was christened Edith, but when she was in High
School she had a silly streak and wrote it with a 'y' for the 'i' and an
'e' on the end, so her brother called her E-dy-the, the way it looks,
you know, just to tease her, and it turned into Dy-the and stayed that,
though she signs herself Edith. She is one of the very dearest girls I
ever knew, and how we shall get along without her next year at Dexter is
more than I can guess. All the little preps adore her. But that was the
very thing that made me crossest about her carelessness. She would go
out in the snow with little thin dancing slippers on and lace stockings,
and then take a horrible cold and be ill for days, and shut herself up
in her room and have everybody bringing her flowers and meals and
writing her notes. And then all her little satellites did similar things
and it made a lot of bother for everybody. Little Hilda went to see a
measles child because she thought it was fine to be reckless the way
Dy-the is, and then she gave it to her roommate and two other girls. I
got quite angry once and let Dy-the know just how it looked to me. I
told her she ought to be ashamed to disobey Nature and be sent to bed
for it, and she only laughed and quoted things from Stevenson about
people who live on t